According to my School District 63 Saanich Library Handbook, an exemplary school library program with regard to the collection, "provides a balanced, carefully selected, and systematically organized diverse collection of library resources that is sufficient to meet students needs and is continuously monitored for currency and relevance" (p.5). The condition of the materials should be "current and in good repair" and "outdated and worn materials are consistently discarded by the teacher-librarian, according to the guidelines generally accepted by the library profession" (p.6). To me, this means that the articles and books I am reading about weeding would be accepted practice for me to follow. The Saanich Library Handbook also states that an exemplary program "provides a balanced collection of books, software, and electronic resources at the school library program level with a minimum of 30 items per pupil" (p.7).
Grade Two Life Science: Animal Growth and Change
For this assignment, I am going to analyze and weed a small section of the Grade Two Life Science Curriculum (2005) called, Animal Growth and Change with a specific focus on Eagles. Eagles work very well as a topic in our school community for several reasons:
eagles are a local raptor and children can see them flying, on the shores of our local beaches and up in their many nests; we can simply go on a community walk and have a decent chance of seeing an eagle
This is a live webcam that records the life cycle of eagles from mating to birth to eaglets leaving the nest. The camera is recording a live feed 24 hours a day. Our local webcam eagles are called Ma and Pa Sidney and they are on their fourth set of eaglets. The Sidney school students have watched Ravens steal eggs, a rescue crane and crew of eagle specialists take fishing line off of an eaglets legs-he was attached to the nest and would have died. We watch the parents keep the eggs safe by taking turns sitting on them and leaving the nest to eat, watched the eaglets use their egg-tooth to crack the shell, watch the parents feed hungry eaglets, flying practice, etcetera
David Hancock is an eagle expert and will give us whole-school powerpoint presentations and small-class question and answer sessions
In Brentwood Bay (20 minutes from Sidney School), there is a live raptor demonstration in the spring
Eagles are an excellent topic to explore because we have rich, local resources. Martinez states, "the culture surrounding your library dictates the collection" (2010, p. 1). It makes so much sense to build a strong eagle collection when it is one of our local raptors.
Data Collection
According to our automated system using L4U, we have 21 eagle resources that are quite old but have circulated in the last year. Twelve of these resources are non-fiction, four are easy fiction, four are fiction novels and one I'm not sure of (PL?). I could not locate several of the resources and L4U said they were in the library. I put a check beside the ones I could find on the left-hand side. The right-hand side shows copyright date and number of circulations.
Number of Eagle Resources
Average Age of Resources
Total Number of Circulations
21
1993
25
Here are the books my L4U generated with my Eagles search:
Above are the books I could locate that L4U generated. Several were missing and two were checked out.
Below are the resources I found by looking on the shelves and in my newly organized Science room. I found a poster with relvant eagle information on the back, an interesting Birds of Prey DVD and many, newer, more up-to-date resources that did not come up on my automated eagle search. Any resources with a black marker line through them means they came from Greenglade School six years ago when we amalgamated. I found 27 resources that did not come up on my L4U eagle search.
I am going to base my weeding on what I physically found, not just on the data generated by the automatic system.
Weeding Criteria
According to Bishop, when doing inventory, it "is the process of examining each item physically and also checking for records of accuracy" (2007, p. 125) that will help you to know your collection. I put all the resources I found through L4U and through my physical searching, on a table and went through each resource. Bishop states, "weeding the collection will improve the appearance and use of the collection, as well as ensure that the information in media center materials is accurate and up-to-date" (p. 127). Just getting water damaged and 'smelly' books off the stacks has helped. Our library shelves are so overcrowded that choosing one book often ends up with a pile on the floor. Allen maintains, "students cannot efficiently find quality information if outdated, wrong, or poorly presented information is overcrowding your library shelves" (2010, p. 32).
I am following the MUSTIE acronym that Moore (n.d., p. 6) refers to to indicate when to deselect an item from our eagle collection. I deleted ten books ranging in age from 1979 - 2000. The average age of book was 1991.5.
A couple of the books that we had multiple copies of will go to a Grade Two classroom, the rest will be donated to Compassionate Warehouse, a non-profit book distribution society or to 1,000 Books. The Ministry of Education document believes in the options of donation to agencies as well. I did not find a written school district policy on this but contacted the head of Saanich Teacher Librarian Association, Bonnie McComb and she said I could give them away like we have been doing. She also said to be very careful not to just pass on our 'musty old book problems on to others'. Her final words to me were, "be strong! A well weeded library creates room for new things".
These are the materials I chose to deselect from our library:
These resources came up on my automated search:
Animorphs: The Arrival by K. A. Applegate This fiction novel has not circulated in one year and the pages are falling out (like the glue has quit holding).
Eagle-Eye Ernie Comes to Town by Susan Pearson This fiction novel is 21 years old and smells really bad. No circulation for the past year.
Nature's Hidden World: Birds of Prey by Michel Cuisin
I wrote notes on why I deselected these books and left them on for my library tech to see.
This non-fiction book has old-fashioned, painted pictures, yellowing pages, small text and is 31 years old. We have many other, more suitable birds of prey books.
These resources I found by looking on the shelves:
Eagles by Deborah Hodge Lovely non-fiction book but we have three other copies so have chosen to remove this one because it is the most worn.
Welcome to the World of Eagles by Diane Swanson This non-fiction text has water damage and we own two other copies.
Eagles, Hawks, and other Birds of Prey by Lynda Dewitt This non-fiction text has a boring layout,
These are deleted and we could not figure out how to show they were deleted.
boring pictures and way too much text.
Amazing Birds of Prey by Jemima Parry-Jones This non-fiction text is a wonderful book that has been repaired with so much tape that it won't stay open-very frustrating to look at. We have other texts (even one by the same author) that are just as good so no need to replace.
A New True Book: Birds of Prey by Lynn M. Stone Non-fiction text that has no text features. We have more suitable up-to-date books with better features. Published in 1983!
A New True Book: Bald Eagles by Emilie U. Lepthien This non-fiction 1989 book is damaged by felt pen and is also refers to chemical spraying of DDT (banned in 1972) that is such out-of-date information that it is irrelevant to students at this age level.
Beautiful British Columbia: The Book of Eagles A beautiful book of non-fiction and fiction that is falling apart at the binding. I may try to order a new one.
Reflection
The first thing I did was generate the L4U report on eagles and then physically search the stacks and Science room. I took all the resources home so I could spend more time looking at them closely. The easiest part was looking at the resources. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what we had and loved the photographs of eagles. The hardest part was weeding books that had nice pictures but small text or inappropriate text. It was easy to deselect an obviously damaged or smelly book.
I would use the same process next time. Using L4U is important to me. I need to feel like I can run the 'tech' part of the library when my library tech is away. I liked having both the generated report and the books in front of me. I felt like I was making educated decisions, not just gut-instinct reactions.
The theory I learned helped me to make the hard decisions like when a book still looks good but there is a better resource in the collection. I like that I have the theory behind deselection for when I speak to my administration and my colleagues. I feel they have been so respectful of my decisions and now they will be even more confident in my abilities. I love the language of deselection.
All my weeding over the next several years will be for inventory purposes, too. I believe it is the only way I can check on whether L4U is accurate to what is actually on the shelves.
I have studied eagles for several years at Sidney Elementary School and haven't seen many of these resources. I relied on the library staff to provide me with resources and I guess if they weren't catalogued in a way that made them acessible I didn't get them. Clearly, I need to look at the existing cataloguing and searching in L4U. Bishop is clear that we must keep "accurate records of what is in the collection" (p. 119). I found this first hand to be true or the library will not provide access to all the potential materials available. My Library Tech was shocked when I showed her my findings. This will be an area for further exploration.
I left a sticky note on each item I wanted my library tech to deselect, explaining my reasoning. This was excellent for showing her respect (11 years as Sidney's tech) and to help her to understand my decisions. My tech knows she is to talk to me if she disagrees with any of my deselctions (over 1500 since September). She does a lot of book circulation and knows what moves and doesn't move!
Sidney School Library has a lot of good eagle books. If I had not physically looked on the stacks I would have missed many good books. By browsing in the Science room I found a great poster and a relevant DVD. I feel like even though many of our resources have older copyright dates, the information is up-to-date!
Even removing ten books in this eagle section made a difference. Like Bishop states, "many benefits come from weeding a collection, including the creation of more space" (p. 124). Every time I remove even a small section of materials, space is freed up and the library does look more attractive and orderly. I am able to put some books on little easels and display them now.
Dickinson puports that 'weeding is a professional responsibility" (2005, p. 24) and I truly believe this to be true. An overstuffed, smelly library is not appealing to any of it's users. I have felt overwhelmed since taking on this job due to the amount of weeding that is necessary. Even the small job of weeding the eagle resources took me several hours. As the new Teacher Librarian I am going to "make weeding a continuous part of the administrative routine of the library" (Dickinson, 2005, p. 24). I am going to make it a short (15 minute) weekly task and work in small sections and track my progress like Dickinson suggests. That being said, at this moment, I am doing at least one afternoon a week for around four hours of strictly deselection. It is too big of a job for now to only do the fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes a day is my long-term goal. I also have a poster up in my office tracking the areas I have weeded and the dates.
Our on-line databases that we subscribe to also have great resources on eagles. I have not ignored these-I just know I will not be deselecting these great on-line resources our district subscribes to through the ERAC bundle.
In summary, I wholeheartedly agree with Allen (2010, p. 32), that "weeding is as critical as selection of new materials" when ensuring the development of a quality library collection. I love to purchase new resources, just like I like new clothes! Every time a new item comes in I try to discard an older piece of clothing. I believe that, "school library media collections should also be in a continuous state of change" (p. 33). When something new comes in, something not working anymore should leave...
References
Allen, M. (2010). Weed 'Em and Reap: The art of weeding to avoid criticism. Library Media Connection 28(6), 32-33. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Bishop, K. (2007). The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts, Practices, and Information Sources. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2002). Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide. Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2005). LearningResources Grade Collection-Science Grade 2. Victoria: Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia.
Dickinson, G. (2005). Crying over spilled milk. Library Media Connection 23(7), 24-26. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Martinez, M. (2010). The collection isn't yours: Balancing personal agendas with library agendas. LIScareer.com: Career strategies for librarians.
Moore, J. (n.d.) Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding. Retrieved April 8, 2010.
Assignment # 4
Weeding Project
School District Policies
According to my School District 63 Saanich Library Handbook, an exemplary school library program with regard to the collection, "provides a balanced, carefully selected, and systematically organized diverse collection of library resources that is sufficient to meet students needs and is continuously monitored for currency and relevance" (p.5). The condition of the materials should be "current and in good repair" and "outdated and worn materials are consistently discarded by the teacher-librarian, according to the guidelines generally accepted by the library profession" (p.6). To me, this means that the articles and books I am reading about weeding would be accepted practice for me to follow. The Saanich Library Handbook also states that an exemplary program "provides a balanced collection of books, software, and electronic resources at the school library program level with a minimum of 30 items per pupil" (p.7).
Grade Two Life Science: Animal Growth and Change
For this assignment, I am going to analyze and weed a small section of the Grade Two Life Science Curriculum (2005) called, Animal Growth and Change with a specific focus on Eagles. Eagles work very well as a topic in our school community for several reasons:
Eagles are an excellent topic to explore because we have rich, local resources. Martinez states, "the culture surrounding your library dictates the collection" (2010, p. 1). It makes so much sense to build a strong eagle collection when it is one of our local raptors.
Data Collection
According to our automated system using L4U, we have 21 eagle resources that are quite old but have circulated in the last year. Twelve of these resources are non-fiction, four are easy fiction, four are fiction novels and one I'm not sure of (PL?). I could not locate several of the resources and L4U said they were in the library. I put a check beside the ones I could find on the left-hand side. The right-hand side shows copyright date and number of circulations.
Here are the books my L4U generated with my Eagles search:
Above are the books I could locate that L4U generated. Several were missing and two were checked out.
Below are the resources I found by looking on the shelves and in my newly organized Science room. I found a poster with relvant eagle information on the back, an interesting Birds of Prey DVD and many, newer, more up-to-date resources that did not come up on my automated eagle search. Any resources with a black marker line through them means they came from Greenglade School six years ago when we amalgamated. I found 27 resources that did not come up on my L4U eagle search.
I am going to base my weeding on what I physically found, not just on the data generated by the automatic system.
Weeding Criteria
According to Bishop, when doing inventory, it "is the process of examining each item physically and also checking for records of accuracy" (2007, p. 125) that will help you to know your collection. I put all the resources I found through L4U and through my physical searching, on a table and went through each resource. Bishop states, "weeding the collection will improve the appearance and use of the collection, as well as ensure that the information in media center materials is accurate and up-to-date" (p. 127). Just getting water damaged and 'smelly' books off the stacks has helped. Our library shelves are so overcrowded that choosing one book often ends up with a pile on the floor. Allen maintains, "students cannot efficiently find quality information if outdated, wrong, or poorly presented information is overcrowding your library shelves" (2010, p. 32).
I am following the MUSTIE acronym that Moore (n.d., p. 6) refers to to indicate when to deselect an item from our eagle collection. I deleted ten books ranging in age from 1979 - 2000. The average age of book was 1991.5.
A couple of the books that we had multiple copies of will go to a Grade Two classroom, the rest will be donated to Compassionate Warehouse, a non-profit book distribution society or to 1,000 Books. The Ministry of Education document believes in the options of donation to agencies as well. I did not find a written school district policy on this but contacted the head of Saanich Teacher Librarian Association, Bonnie McComb and she said I could give them away like we have been doing. She also said to be very careful not to just pass on our 'musty old book problems on to others'. Her final words to me were, "be strong! A well weeded library creates room for new things".
These are the materials I chose to deselect from our library:
These resources came up on my automated search:
Animorphs: The Arrival by K. A. Applegate
This fiction novel has not circulated in one year and the pages are falling out (like the glue has quit holding).
Eagle-Eye Ernie Comes to Town by Susan Pearson
This fiction novel is 21 years old and smells really bad. No circulation for the past year.
Nature's Hidden World: Birds of Prey by Michel Cuisin
This non-fiction book has old-fashioned, painted pictures, yellowing pages, small text and is 31 years old. We have many other, more suitable birds of prey books.
These resources I found by looking on the shelves:
Eagles by Deborah Hodge
Lovely non-fiction book but we have three other copies so have chosen to remove this one because it is the most worn.
Welcome to the World of Eagles by Diane Swanson
This non-fiction text has water damage and we own two other copies.
Eagles, Hawks, and other Birds of Prey by Lynda Dewitt
This non-fiction text has a boring layout,
boring pictures and way too much text.
Amazing Birds of Prey by Jemima Parry-Jones
This non-fiction text is a wonderful book that has been repaired with so much tape that it won't stay open-very frustrating to look at. We have other texts (even one by the same author) that are just as good so no need to replace.
A New True Book: Birds of Prey by Lynn M. Stone
Non-fiction text that has no text features. We have more suitable up-to-date books with better features. Published in 1983!
A New True Book: Bald Eagles by Emilie U. Lepthien
This non-fiction 1989 book is damaged by felt pen and is also refers to chemical spraying of DDT (banned in 1972) that is such out-of-date information that it is irrelevant to students at this age level.
Beautiful British Columbia: The Book of Eagles
A beautiful book of non-fiction and fiction that is falling apart at the binding. I may try to order a new one.
Reflection
The first thing I did was generate the L4U report on eagles and then physically search the stacks and Science room. I took all the resources home so I could spend more time looking at them closely. The easiest part was looking at the resources. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what we had and loved the photographs of eagles. The hardest part was weeding books that had nice pictures but small text or inappropriate text. It was easy to deselect an obviously damaged or smelly book.
I would use the same process next time. Using L4U is important to me. I need to feel like I can run the 'tech' part of the library when my library tech is away. I liked having both the generated report and the books in front of me. I felt like I was making educated decisions, not just gut-instinct reactions.
The theory I learned helped me to make the hard decisions like when a book still looks good but there is a better resource in the collection. I like that I have the theory behind deselection for when I speak to my administration and my colleagues. I feel they have been so respectful of my decisions and now they will be even more confident in my abilities. I love the language of deselection.
All my weeding over the next several years will be for inventory purposes, too. I believe it is the only way I can check on whether L4U is accurate to what is actually on the shelves.
I have studied eagles for several years at Sidney Elementary School and haven't seen many of these resources. I relied on the library staff to provide me with resources and I guess if they weren't catalogued in a way that made them acessible I didn't get them. Clearly, I need to look at the existing cataloguing and searching in L4U. Bishop is clear that we must keep "accurate records of what is in the collection" (p. 119). I found this first hand to be true or the library will not provide access to all the potential materials available. My Library Tech was shocked when I showed her my findings. This will be an area for further exploration.
I left a sticky note on each item I wanted my library tech to deselect, explaining my reasoning. This was excellent for showing her respect (11 years as Sidney's tech) and to help her to understand my decisions. My tech knows she is to talk to me if she disagrees with any of my deselctions (over 1500 since September). She does a lot of book circulation and knows what moves and doesn't move!
Sidney School Library has a lot of good eagle books. If I had not physically looked on the stacks I would have missed many good books. By browsing in the Science room I found a great poster and a relevant DVD. I feel like even though many of our resources have older copyright dates, the information is up-to-date!
Even removing ten books in this eagle section made a difference. Like Bishop states, "many benefits come from weeding a collection, including the creation of more space" (p. 124). Every time I remove even a small section of materials, space is freed up and the library does look more attractive and orderly. I am able to put some books on little easels and display them now.
Dickinson puports that 'weeding is a professional responsibility" (2005, p. 24) and I truly believe this to be true. An overstuffed, smelly library is not appealing to any of it's users. I have felt overwhelmed since taking on this job due to the amount of weeding that is necessary. Even the small job of weeding the eagle resources took me several hours. As the new Teacher Librarian I am going to "make weeding a continuous part of the administrative routine of the library" (Dickinson, 2005, p. 24). I am going to make it a short (15 minute) weekly task and work in small sections and track my progress like Dickinson suggests. That being said, at this moment, I am doing at least one afternoon a week for around four hours of strictly deselection. It is too big of a job for now to only do the fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes a day is my long-term goal. I also have a poster up in my office tracking the areas I have weeded and the dates.
Our on-line databases that we subscribe to also have great resources on eagles. I have not ignored these-I just know I will not be deselecting these great on-line resources our district subscribes to through the ERAC bundle.
In summary, I wholeheartedly agree with Allen (2010, p. 32), that "weeding is as critical as selection of new materials" when ensuring the development of a quality library collection. I love to purchase new resources, just like I like new clothes! Every time a new item comes in I try to discard an older piece of clothing. I believe that, "school library media collections should also be in a continuous state of change" (p. 33). When something new comes in, something not working anymore should leave...
References
Allen, M. (2010). Weed 'Em and Reap: The art of weeding to avoid criticism. Library Media Connection 28(6), 32-33. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Bishop, K. (2007). The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts, Practices, and Information Sources. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2002). Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide. Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2005). Learning Resources Grade Collection-Science Grade 2. Victoria: Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia.
Dickinson, G. (2005). Crying over spilled milk. Library Media Connection 23(7),
24-26. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Martinez, M. (2010). The collection isn't yours: Balancing personal agendas with library agendas. LIScareer.com: Career strategies for librarians.
Moore, J. (n.d.) Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding. Retrieved April 8, 2010.
School District 63 (Saanich) Library Handbook.